Stuck in the stoned age

ZomVee said:
I have chipped away at a couple. Maybe try to move some in late winter/ early Spring. One of my neighbors has a mini excavator that he uses to landscape some boulders in his yard, so I think I could move them with his help.

Gotta dig them out first, I dunno it’s crazy, but fun. I keep hoping I might find something, nothing but clay so far.

Although there is some ancient siltstone that I wanna pulverize and throw in my compost pile.
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Very cool! That is a good neighbor to have. I hope to own some land and skid steer some day... or have a neighbor with an excavator :)
 
ZomVee said:
I’m a total screwup, so the land is a little overwhelming for me still hahaha, but it’s also peace of mind as well. Nothing like it.
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I guess I'm totally admiring a screwup then.... I'm loving what you're doing there. :)

I'm so curious about something I've not seen discussed in youtube videos that illustrate these tools. That is... how the rocks react to based on whether you're drilling holes along a grain vs across.

I'll get my popcorn and wait for your updates. ;)
 
ETXfigs said:
I grew up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and there are these rock walls that we just always called Chinese walls. My Dad told me that they were built by Chinese slaves during the gold rush. When looking for information about them online, I see that there are some of these walls near San Francisco Bay area. It seems like they want it to be a mystery and say that they don't know who built them. I even saw a TV show about them and they made it sound like these walls could have been built by ancient aliens. I should point out that there were a lot of Chinese immigrants in San Francisco in the 19th century.

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Walls are built by people who are working the land, for any number of reasons. For example, when fields are plowed rocks have a way of working their way to the surface--the rocks are collected and eventually the walls are placed at the property borders.

My stepfather began working on his grandfathers farm when he was six years old. The older uncles and his father would work the plows, the grandfather would ride the horse and buggy where the younins would pick up the rocks and throw them on back of the buggy--yep back then everything was mules, horses or oxen--this was back in the 1950's. The older, bigger and stronger the kids became the bigger the rocks they would pick up. My old man said you'd bend down to pick up a rock then run to the back of the buggy throw the rock onto the back, then bend down to pick up another rock--ALL DAY LONG.

Not only would these men (and I do mean MEN), work this 50 acre farm they were all truck drivers, steel workers or other blue collar workers on top of helping out the family farm run. When the grandfather died (early 1960's), the farm died.

This was tough farming, I don't even want to tell you guys how they'd put some of the animals down before butchering the meat.
 
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Any clue what was going on with these concrete pieces? As far as I can tell I’m the first person to dig around these rocks, but someone was trying to do something here before me.

@ktrain What in the Appalachian homesteadin’ is this?
 
Grok says septic system and there’s the tank right there.


It’s in the weirdest location though



Maybe someone just moved all the pieces there, out of the way of everything.
 
ZomVee said:
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Any clue what was going on with these concrete pieces? As far as I can tell I’m the first person to dig around these rocks, but someone was trying to do something here before me.

@ktrain What in the Appalachian homesteadin’ is this?
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I was thinking remenants of an old still. I'm not so sure someone would build such a septic system out in the middle of no where, when a simple outhouse would be easier. Heck, just going back to my great grandparents, I know two of them had outhouses and they lived in town.
 
rayray said:
I was thinking remenants of an old still. I'm not so sure someone would build such a septic system out in the middle of no where, when a simple outhouse would be easier. Heck, just going back to my great grandparents, I know two of them had outhouses and they lived in town.
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I’m thinking they replaced the septic system and ditched the old one out of the way.
 
Haven't started yet but I was thinking of symbols I want to try for; I went to South Holston Dam the day before Thanksgiving, with my sister and her son and it was awesome, super peaceful. We hit it just right, got in before a wave of people, mosied down the stream side, saw this Great Blue Heron silently flying away.

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I was thinking about MC Esher tessellations as well, but carving a blue heron out of this rock is kinda interesting to me. Fig leaves of course, excuse the rough drawings, I was going off making a symbol only



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This was at the first parking lot where we parked, as we walked away I was like that is pretty neat adding so much air to the water and my sister said yeah, there’s a sign explaining it.
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Cool spot,

Dolomite Heron???Screenshot_20251203-154415.Chrome.png
 
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I read this thread every time I see it pop up because I love those rock walls and they were all over when I lived in New England but man you have some stick-to-it-ive-ness! I love cool rocks Texas rocks sometimes have little holes in them that look like worm holes. I'll get a picture if I remember when it's light in the morning. I only have tiny ones cause I don't want to steal the one from the greenbelt trails but they are so cool looking. I would give up easy trying to move big rocks- I'm past my rock moving years but it would be cool to get a little tractor
 
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